Star Trek:Odyssey 3:Origins of Doomsday
by rylansato
Summary: The Alexandria and her crew encounter an enemy that was encountered before but now its also an enemy of the Borg.
1. A lot of Cubes

Star Trek: Odyssey Episode: Origins of Doomsday

_Captain's Log: Stardate:_ _57281.7__. We're en route to Starbase 125 via orders of Admiral Dowler. She hasn't given me full details on why she has asked the Alexandria to come to the starbase but she says it's urgent. One can only imagine what the next chapter of our adventures has in store for the crew._

Morning was not something Kit Moran enjoyed. To help ease her into the daily routine that was her life, she found it helpful to start her day in the rec lounge with a cup of hot chocolate. She didn't care if it was the dead of winter or middle of August, on a starship, the seasons never change. However, this morning was different. Moran stumbed into the lounge and obtained her cup from the replicator, her tired eyes focused on the body sitting in her spot. She knew there were no new crew members so the navigator didn't know what to think. Everyone knew that was her spot so no one sat there, even the captain. However, this brown haired individual with a yellow shirt underneath his standard uniform has decided to sit there. Now that her grogginess was gone due to the semi anger that was filling up inside her, she had finally realized who was sitting there. She felt stupid now because she sits next to him every day while on duty. It was Lieutenant Commander Alex Merriell. She liked Alex and decided it was time to mess with him.

"You're in my spot." She said.

The brown haired man looked up at her unsympathetically. "I know. I figured I'd join you this morning, if it's all right with you."

"Of course it is." She replied.

Moran sat down across from her bridge partner. She wasn't too sure what to say other than to talk about their times on the bridge. That was the only thing she knew they had in common. The two of them just sat there sipping at their drinks and glancing around the room. Then a shadow loomed over both of them. They looked up to see the chief engineer of the Alexandria, Dustin Zofchak.

"Am I intruding?

"No not at all." Moran said.

Zofchak pulled out a chair and joined his shipmates. He sat down with a glass of orange juice. Zofchak was an old fashioned type of guy who liked old Earth style morning drinks.

"How's engineering?" Moran asked.

"Same as its always is." Zofchak replied.

"How's navigation and ops?"

"The usual." Merriell said.

Moran nodded with aggreeance.

"Looks like we're here." Zofchak said looking out the window.

The two other officers looked out to see Starbase 125 orbiting the third planet of the Tucker system. The starbase was of the circular design looking like a mushroom. The starbase rotated slowly in the planet's orbit with a multitude of ships leaving and entering it's doors.

"I wonder what we're going to be doing this time?" Merriell asked.

Captain Allensworth sat in Admiral Dowler's office as they discussed their current matters. Dowler wasn't an elderly woman. She looked younger than Admiral Nechayev, more around the age of Admiral Janeway.

"So my orders are to head to Starbase 135 in the Compdi System to investigate its disappearance?" Allensworth asked.

"That's correct, Captain." Dowler replied.

"Do we have any leads?"

"We have a theory that the Borg are involved."

"Why the Borg?"

Dowler pressed a few buttons on her LCARS screen and swivled it around to show the Alexandria's captain.

"This is an image sent by a probe that was launched by the starbase only days before communications with the Starbase went dead."

Allensworth's eyes widened. "That's a lot of cubes."

The admiral swivled the screen back towards her without taking her eyes off of him. "The Defiant class USS Brighton was also in the system and reported seeing mulitple cube shaped vessels connected to one another around a planet near the Compdi System. Unfortunately the ship hasn't been heard from since."

"So what if it is the Borg? What do we do when we get there? We just go up to them and say 'hey don't do that go back to your side' because I don't see just one Sovereign class vessel up against that many ships. Hell, at least the Enterprise had help from other ships to take out one cube at Earth."

"We're not certain it's definately the Borg, although if it is, then we need to prepare for an invasion. That's why I'm sending a Sovereign class vessel out to investigate. If it is the Borg, get back here as soon as possible and we'll have a fleet standing by to assist in destroying this threat. I've already sent messages to the Preator Tal'aura and Chancellor Martok of the possible invasion."

Allensworth nodded to his orders and stood to leave.

"Oh and Captain."

Allensworth was halfway out the door when she called his name. He turned to the admiral.

"I know I don't need to tell you this since you were on Voyager and have dealt with the Borg before but be careful."

Allensworth nodded and the doors slid shut behind him.

The Alexandria flew through space at maximum warp. The warp limit had been lifted to allow the Sovereign class ship to cruise at warp 9.9. Allensworth sat in his command chair with the nervousness of a new cadet. He hadn't dealt with the Borg since his tour on Voyager. Hell, even at that time he knew that Captain Janeway would handle the situation and get them out of it. Now, he had the reigns of his own starship and it was his turn to handle the situation. He stood up from his chair and paced around the bridge. Both Sparhawk and Nycz looked at their captain while he walked around the bridge. Moran and Merriell were at the conn and ops stations. The bridge was totally silent with the exception of the systems running. The ship currently ran at yellow alert. Jermaine waited for the sensors to go off and for him to say "red alert." Then suddenly the sensors did go off.

"Captain, I'm picking up multiple vessels ahead."

"Life signs?"

Merriell shook his head. "No life signs or power readings."

"On screen."

The wall rippled out of existence and showed what the sensors were reading. Allensworth along with everyone else who saw it were astonished at the sight. Debris of multiple Borg cubes filled the area.


	2. Assimilation and Antiprotons

Sparhawk and Nycz rose from their seats and stood next to their captain. They all shared the same look on their faces. Zofchak walked through the turbolift doors to head to the engineering station on the main bridge. He was barely out of the turbolift when he noticed the activity on the main view screen.

"This is like the Borg's version of Wolf Three Five Nine." Moran said.

Her analogy was not far off. Even though thirty nine starships were lost against the Borg, it looked as if the Borg fared worse in this battle. Due to all of the debris Allensworth couldn't decipher how many cubes were actually here. The debris field was dense like an asteroid field and that piloting the mighty Sovereign class starship would be no easy task.

"What could've done this?" Nycz asked.

"Could it be Species 8472?" Sparhawk asked.

"Merriell, are you picking up any biological material amongst the debris?" Allensworth asked.

After a few seconds of pressing a few commands into his console, he responded. "Negative, sir. I am, however, picking up traces of antiprotons."

"Antiprotons?"

"Mulitple items these days use antiprotons, sir." Merriell said. "Such as Romulan disruptors leave a residual trace of antiprotons, Jem'Hadar ships use antiproton beams to detect cloaked ships and even our main deflector dish is charged with antiprotons."

Something didn't sit right with Allensworth. He felt the answer to this mystery was so incredibly easy to figure out but he could put his finger on it. Nycz noticed his discomfort.

"I highly doubt Romulans could've done this to an entire fleet of Borg cubes." Allensworth said.

"Weren't the Borg cubes in orbit around a planet?" Sparhawk asked.

"Yes, sir. However, I'm not finding any traces of the planet at all."

"Are we in the right area?"

"Yes, sir but no planet. In fact there are no planets in this solar system. It would seem that the planets were completely destroyed."

It was on the tip of Allensworth's tongue. He knew the answer to this but it wasn't coming to him. Something that destroys planets and gave the Borg a pasting. Sparhawk turned to Allensworth.

"Borg cubes destroyed, a planet gone. It sounds like 8472's handy work." He said with a lowered voice.

"That's true, but 8472 doesn't use antiprotons. It's something else. I can feel it."

"Helm, lay in a course to Starbase 135 and we'll continue with our investigation there." Allensworth ordered.

"Aye, sir." Moran said as she punched in the coordinates and sent the Alexandria into warp.

A short time later, the Alexandria came out of warp in the Compdi system. Sensors beeped at the ops station. Merriell pressed a few buttons to figure out what the sensors were picking up.

"Sir, Starbase 135 is no longer in orbit."

"No longer in orbit?"

"Yes, sir."

"Scan the planet's surface."

"I'm picking up approximately eighty four thousand life signs on the planet's surface but for some reason sensors can't tell what they are. It would appear that something on the planet is blocking the ship's sensors."

"This planet is supposed to be uninhabited." Sparhawk said.

"Go into high orbit around the planet. Sparhawk, lead an away team down to the planet and see if you can figure out what is going on."

"Aye, sir." Sparhawk said walking past the captain towards the turbolift. Merriell, Fulks. You're with me."

The two bridge officers left their stations to accompany Sparhawk in the turbolift. Lieutenant Kell Perim took over at ops while the long, blonde haired Ensign Olivia James took over at Tactical.

The three Alexandria officers materialized in a grassy clearing. The sky was overcast and the wind slightly blew against them. Fulks slightly closed his eyes not expecting to be greeted by the wind. Merriell pulled out his tricorder and the instrument immediately came to life. Sparhawk turned to him in a semi non-patient wait of his report.

"Sir, I'm picking up multiple life signs over in the direction."

The three of them began to walk in the direction of the life signs.

"Is the crew of the starbase?" Sparhawk asked.

"Yes and no, sir."

Sparhawk gave him a confused look.

"Everyone down there is all Borg."

A second later, they reached the top of the hill and they could make out the definite remains of a spacedock style starbase. The circular shape, the multiple piles of debris with starfleet markings on them. They found Starbase 135 and it had been assimilated by the Borg.

In orbit around the planet, the Alexandria glided through the dark, cold vastness of space. Captain Allensworth sat in his ready room, trying to figure out what could be responsible for the destruction of the planets and the Borg fleet. At that moment, the door chimed.

"Come in." He said.

The doors slide away from each other revealing Counselor Nycz to be on the other side.

"What can I do for you, Counselor?"

"You seemed to be troubled, sir."

"Just slightly. I feel as if someone else has encountered this problem before."

Nycz thought for a moment.

"I don't recall any starship ever encountering wreckage a Borg fleet." Nycz said.

"I do. When Voyager first encountered Species 8472, they had destroyed fifteen Borg cubes with ease. It would seem that they are back but we're not picking up any residual evidence that would lead us to believe that it was them." Allensworth leaned forward and pressed a button on his LCARS display. "I think it has something to do with the Enterprise. Maybe not the Enterprise-E but maybe with an Enterprise from the past. Say like Captain Kirk's time."

But before he could do anything on the LCARS screen, the intercom chirped on.

"Captain," It was Lieutenant Perim. "Sensors have picked up that one of the planets in this system is breaking up."

"Breaking up?"

"Yes, sir."

"I'm on my way."

The ready room doors opened and Allensworth, followed by Nycz, walked onto the bridge. Allensworth stood in between Moran and Perim, facing the view screen.

"Sir, sensors are detecting an object of unknown origin in the planet's place and is moving towards the planet closest to its position. Which is this planet, sir."

"On screen." Allensworth said.

The object appeared on the screen and Allensworth eyes widened. There was no mistaking it now. This object looked like a tornado turned sideways with a blueish-gray color to it and a large opening on one end. Only one other has been ever encountered and it battled two Constitution class starships, destroying one of them. Some referred to this object as a planet killer but Allensworth liked to call it a Doomsday Machine.


	3. The New Target

Sparhawk, Fulks and Merriell crept around tha half assimilated starbase in hopes of not being detected. Sparhawk and Fulks had their phasers drawn while Merriell kept his tricorder open. Out of the three of them, Sparhawk was the only one who had any run ins with the Borg. He was aboard the USS Thunder Child during the battle of Sector 001. During that time he had to fight off Borg intruders but other than that he didn't have much experience. If anyone aboard the Alexandria would have any experience with the Borg, it would be Dustin Zofchak. He knew that Zofchak has had several encounters with the Borg during his tour on the Enterprise. The three away team members ducked behind a pile of debris that looked like useless junk thrown to the side by the Borg drones. Sparhawk peered over the pile and saw several drones working on the side of the starbase. From his position, he knew that those were former starfleet officers that were now minions of the Borg, doomed for the rest of their lives to do the bidding of the collective. Sparhawk tapped his communicator.

"Sparhawk to Alexandria."

"Go ahead." Allensworth said.

"The entire Starbase has been assimilated along with the crew."

"Can you see what they're up to from your position?"

"From what we can tell from here, sir, is that they are just doing what they can to assimilate the Starbase. There are thousands of drones down here. It looks like they're trying to build another ship. We're going to try and get closer."

"Understood. Keep me informed and be careful down there. Allensworth out."

Sparhawk tapped his comm badge to kill the communication. He returned his full attention to the task at hand. Merriell saw an access panel across the way.

"Commander, we might be able to figure out what they are planning if we can get to the panel." Merriell said motioning to the panel with his tricorder.

"Let's do it." The first officer said.

The three officers darted from their position to the access panel. Sparhawk and Fulks stood guard while Merriell opened the panel and went to work. Alex pressed buttons with one hand and held his tricorder in the other. Messing with Borg technology was new to him and he half expected to press a wrong button and a pair of tubes would come out to assimilate him. As he was pressing buttons, Borg drones stopped their tasks and headed for the intruders. They came into view and zeroed in on the away team's position. Sparhawk didn't like the look of their guests.

"Hurry up, Alex." Sparhawk said.

"I think I almost have it, sir."

"You better have it, now."

The drones were only feet away from them.

"Stand by."

"I can't." Sparhawk said as he aimed his phaser and fired.

Fulks did the same against his Borg attackers.

"Remember to reset your phaser frequency so they don't adapt." Sparhawk said.

"Way ahead of you, sir." Fulks said.

The drones kept coming regardless of how many fell before them. Fulks shot another drone in the chest but the beam was absorbed and the drone kept walking. Sparhawk did the same and ended up with the same result.

"Damn it, they've adapted." Fulks said.

Sparhawk tapped his comm badge.

"Alexandria get us out of here now."

Sparhawk was expecting to be grabbed and assimilated. Instead, he felt the familiar feeling of dematerialization as he, Fulks and Merriell were transported away. The away team rematerialized on the transporter pad aboard the Alexandria.

"Cuttin' it close." Sparhawk said.

"Sorry, sir. Didn't mean to take too long." The transporter chief replied.

Sparhawk noticed that the transporter chief looked a bit tense and that he worked as fast as he could to get them out of there. All that mattered is that the three of them were able to get back to the ship without any harm done.

"We'll skip the court martial this time." Sparhawk said with a grin.

The transporter chief relaxed a bit to Sparhawk's humor. The first officer looked to Merriell, who had a bit of disappointed look on his face.

"I wasn't able to access their systems to figure out what they were planning, sir."

"It's all right, Alex. I'd rather be up here without the information than to be down there and assimilated with the information." Sparhawk said.

Suddenly, the red alert claxon sounded and the three away team members darted out of the transporter room and headed for the bridge.

Allensworth stood in the center of the bridge. The planet killer wasn't paying any attention to the Alexandria. It was focused on the planet. Sparhawk, Fulks and Merriell rushed onto the bridge and went to their respective stations. Kell Perim stood up from her station just as Alex got there to take over. She walked to the back of the bridge to witness the events unfolding. Allensworth could see Sparhawk's surprised expression no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

"Is that what destroyed the Borg fleet?"

"It sure is." Allensworth said. "So far it has completely ignored us but its currently going after the planet."

"Mr. Fulks, fire a spread of photon torpedoes to see if we can get its attention."

"Aye, sir."

Fulks entered a few commands to his tactical console and the Alexandria launched multiple torpedoes that hit the planet killer.

"No damage, sir." Fulks reported.

The tip of the planet killer glowed as it released its destructive beam upon the planet that housed the assimilated starbase and the Borg drones. The bridge crew looked in awe as the beam destroyed the planet and consumed the debris from the planet.

"Were there any other inhabitants on that planet other than the Borg?" the captain asked.

"Negative, sir. All Borg."

It was unfortunate that so many Starfleet personel was assimilated but everyone knew that they'd rather be dead than to serve the collective. It did, however, help out the rest of the galaxy that eighty some thousand Borg were wiped out in a single strike. Allensworth's stomach dropped when he saw the planet killer turn and face it's new target, the Alexandria.

_Shit._


	4. Facing the Alexandria

The mouth of the planet killer glowed and fired a bright orange beam full of antiprotons.

"HARD TO PORT!" Allensworth ordered.

The Sovereign class starship moved to the left to avoid the antiproton charged beam. It would've done a quite a bit of damage if that would've hit.

"Get us out of the path of the beam." The dark skinned captain said.

"Aye, sir." Moran said as she pressed the controls that moved the Alexandria slightly out of harm's way.

"The Alexandria slightly moved to keep the planet killer in front of them.

"That thing looks familiar." Sparhawk said.

"It's a planet killer." Zofchak said practically out of turn. "Captain Kirk and his crew encountered one and defeated it."

Allensworth wasn't at all surprised that his chief engineer knew of the planet killer. According to his record, Dustin studied history in the academy and was considered to be the ship's historian aboard the Enterprise.

The word use caused Sparhawk to raise an eyebrow. "Why did you use the word 'defeated' instead of destroyed?"

"Because it wasn't destroyed. The thing itself still floats in space to this day. I guess 'killed' would be a better term if the thing was alive."

That arose more questions.

"Could it be the same one from Kirk's time?" Fulks asked.

"Doubtful." Allensworth said. "Although, we don't know anything about these things and for them to self-regenerate could be an ability they have, I really doubt that this could be the same one that Kirk faced in his day just for the simple fact that we haven't run into it since."

"Where did it come from?" Nycz asked.

"People speculated that it came from another galaxy outside of our own but no one knows for sure." Zofchak replied.

"How do we take it out?" Sparhawk asked.

"If memory serves, Kirk used the nearly destroyed Constellation and sent it down the opening. When the ship blew up, it killed the planet killer as well."

Before anyone could say anything else, Merriell spoke up.

"Sir, it's charging up its main weapon again."

"Evasive maneuvers." The captain ordered.

The Alexandria moved but antiproton beam skimmed the bottom side of the shields. The crew was almost knocked off their feet. Consoles exploded

"Report." Allensworth said.

"Shields down to 47 percent." Fulks replied.

"Just skimming the shields weakened them that much?" Sparhawk asked.

"Lock phasers and return fire." Allensworth said.

The two ends of the phaser array glowed and moved towards each other. Once they met, a phaser beam fired from the bottom section of the Alexandria's saucer section. The phaser beam left a scorch mark across the planet killer's hull. The doomsday machine prepared itself for another attack. Captain Allensworth sat down in his command chair and typed in a few commands into his right arm panel.

"Lieutenant Moran, come about to five three one mark zero one three."

"Aye, sir."

Once the commands were entered, the Alexandria shifted positions. It put the Federation starship above the planet killer.

"Fire ventral phasers." Allensworth said standing up.

Phasers fired from the bottom of the Sovereign class ship, striking the Doomsday machine once again.

"Target hit, sir." Fulks reported.

Before Allensworth could give another attack order, a beeping sound filled the air. The sensors had picked up something. Merriell pressed a few buttons to figure out what the sensors were going on about.

"Captain, sensors are detecting multiple ships entering this system. They are traveling at high warp and on an intercept course."

"I wonder if it could be the fleet that Admiral Dowler was referring to."

"Actually sir, all of the vessels are cubed shaped."

"How many of them are there?" Sparhawk asked.

"Twenty-two." The Lieutenant Commander replied.

The entire bridge was silent and they all froze in mid motion. There was no way that they could stand up to twenty-two Borg ships. Even if they had the entire fleet and brought all of the old ships out of mothballs. Hell, even if they had the entire quadrant helping them, it still wouldn't be enough.

"Twenty-two Borg ships are headed this way?" Sparhawk asked.

Allensworth could hear a slight hint of fear in his first officer's voice. He couldn't say that he blamed him.

"What's their ETA?" Allensworth asked looking to Merriell.

"Seventeen minutes, sir."

"Sir, the object is moving away from us."

Allensworth redirected his attention to the view screen to see the planet killer move its attention away from the Alexandria to something else. It began to move away. His curiosity was now peaked. This thing was in striking range and now it turned away from the Alexandria. Allensworth wasn't complaining but he did want answers.

"Where's it headed?"

"It's on an intercept course with the Borg ships." Merriell replied.

"Looks like it doesn't want to have a party." Sparhawk said.

"Moran, pursue course. Hit it."

"Aye, sir." She said as she entered the commands into her console and followed the planet killer towards the Borg fleet.

Shortly later, the Alexandria came out of warp.

"Sir, I'm not picking up the standard readings that a Borg cube would give off." Merriell said. "According to the sensors, twenty- one of the twenty-two ships are completely destroyed. One of them is a derelict."

"On screen."

Once the image came on the viewer the bridge crew was stunned once again at the sight that lay before them. It was a graveyard for the Borg.

"That thing really gave them a pasting. I do have to admit that I'm will never grow tired of seeing destroyed Borg cubes" Sparhawk said.

"Where is the doomsday machine now?" Allensworth asked practically ignoring his first officer's comment.

Merriell's eyes widened once he read the readouts from his console. "Below us. It's firing."

"Evasive…" Allensworth tried to say.

He was cut off by the antiproton beam slamming into the ship's shields. The ship rocked violently tossing everyone off their feet. Conduits and panels exploded. The red alert claxon went silent, lights went out and the bridge was dark.


	5. Using the Borg

After a few moments of total darkness, emergency lights kicked on, allowing the bridge crew to see again. Allensworth stumbled to his feet.

"Damage report."

Merriell regained his posture at the ops station. "Shields are down to three percent. Weapons are offline, life support is holding, warp drive is offline but we have impulse."

"What about sensors?"

"Sensors are functioning."

_What an odd set of systems to be offline. _

Allensworth wasn't complaining but the shields might as well be out and there is no way to fight back. All he could do was run and that wasn't an option. The captain turned to see the rest of the bridge crew getting to their feet. He saw Dustin Zofchak run into the turbolift. He didn't have to wonder where he was going; he knew he was headed to Engineering.

"What is the planet killer doing now?"

"It's veering off."

"So it's ignoring us now." Sparhawk said.

"It's heading to the system nearest to here."

"Which is?" Allensworth asked.

"The Tucker System."

Allensworth's breath got caught up in his throat. He had to stop this thing.

"Bridge to Engineering." He called out into the air.

"Zofchak here."

"Dustin, the doomsday machine is headed to the Tucker System. I need everything you can give me."

"We're doing our best down here, Captain." The chief engineer replied.

Allensworth knew the engineering crew was trying to get everything restored. "Merriell, Fulks. Get down there and see if you can give him a hand." The two officers left their stations and entered the turbolift together. Kell Perim took over at ops while Ensign James took over at Tactical. "Moran, set a course for the Tucker system. Fastest speed you can give me."

"Aye sir." She said as she entered the command into her panel.

The battle damaged starship began moving but it was only going at full impulse.

"Lieutenant Perim, send a subspace message to Admiral Dowler at Starbase 125. Inform her of our situation and warn her that a planet killer is heading her way. Also tell her that we'll be there as soon as we can."

"Aye, sir."

Dustin Zofchak and his Engineering crew worked furiously in engineering trying to get warp power back online. He was glad that Alex Merriell and David Fulks came down to help. Zofchak was on the lower level while Fulks was on the upper level.

"Warp engines are operating normally." Zofchak said.

"Power relays are functioning normally." Fulks said.

"Forward shields are up to sixty-five percent. Aft shields…sensors must be down."

"Sensors are fine. No, aft shields have completely failed. Damn it, auxiliary generators are out again."

Zofchak remembered having similar problems on the Enterprise-D when they had just battled the Borg and burned out their main deflector dish. It had taken them a few more hours to get the Enterprise back up and running but they were too late to help out at Wolf 359. In fact, this whole situation resembled that scenario. Captain Allensworth had just informed him of the situation. Admiral Dowler had received his message and had a small fleet waiting at Starbase 125 for the planet killer to arrive. He hoped that this would not turn out to be like Wolf 359. At that thought he began to work even faster than he thought possible.

A short time later, Allensworth sat in his ready room with a padd in his hand. At that moment, the door chimed.

"Come in." He said.

The doors swished open revealing the chief engineer. Allensworth was pleased to see Zofchak.

"Ah, Dustin. What can I do for you? How are things in Engineering?"

"We're almost finished with repairs but I've been thinking about this planet killer. It seems that we can't do too much damage to it with our conventional weaponry while it almost destroys us with a single blast. Remembering my history, I remember that Kirk flew the Constellation into the mouth of the thing and beamed out at the last second. I'm not saying that we use the Alexandria but I noticed that one of those Borg cubes is derelict. I say we use the tractor beam and tow it to the Tucker system and shove it right down the thing's throat."

Allensworth thought for a moment. "I think you're on to something. Make it so."

Zofchak slightly grinned before leaving. Hearing his captain say that made him sound like Captain Picard. Once Dustin left the room, Jermaine Allensworth leaned back in his chair.Then suddenly, the comm. system clicked on.

"Bridge to Captain Allensworth." It was Counselor Nycz.

"Go ahead."

"We just received word from Starbase 125; they've engaged the doomsday machine."

At the mention of the doomsday machine, Allensworth's stomach dropped. He got up from his chair and walked out of his ready room and onto the bridge.

"Merriell, put Starfleet frequency one eight four three on audio."

Alex pressed a few buttons and through out the bridge, the crew could hear the voices of several starship personnel talking into their comm. systems.

"Planet killer in weapons range. Hokkaido, Thunder Child. Come about to zero mark two three. Fire all weapons." A male voice said.

Sounds of explosions followed the orders. "Hull breach." A female person yelled. Allensworth couldn't take it anymore after hearing more explosions and reports of starships being overwhelmed.

"Turn it off."

Alex did as he was told and the bridge was silent once again. Everyone on the bridge waited for their captain's orders.

"Move us into position to tractor beam the Borg derelict."

The Alexandria moved into a position above the Borg ship and a tractor beam shot from the underside of the ship and latched on to the Borg cube.

"Set a course for the Tucker system. Maximum warp."

"Course laid in, sir."

"Red alert, all hands to battle stations. Hit it."

The Alexandria sped off towing the Borg cube.


	6. So Much For That Plan

Multiple Starfleet vessels flew around the planet killer firing all weapons at it but it was like they were shooting holographic phasers at it. The doomsday machine fired its weapon landing a direct hit on the Excelsior class Righteous, destroying it. The Steamrunner class Hokkaido fired phasers along the rim of their enemy's opening without having any effect. The Thunder Child flew in firing phasers and photon torpedoes around the head of the planet killer and having no effect. The Nova class Solent flew straight at it firing into its giant opening. The doomsday machine fired as well and its beam collided with the oncoming phaser beams, negating them and continued on its way towards the ship.

"Hard to starboard." Captain Natalie Hinton said while getting up from her command chair. The ship moved to its right and the beam gazed the underside of the star drive section of the ship. Consoles exploded everywhere on the bridge that rocked violently, sending everyone who was standing to the floor. The red headed female captain got back to her feet and turned around to look at the tactical officer. "Report."

An athletic, green eyed brownish blonde haired girl at the tactical station responded. "Shields down to forty-eight percent."

"Zofchak, fire photon torpedoes." Hinton ordered.

She did as she was told and put the command into her console. The Solent fired torpedoes at the doomsday machine but they just impacted the outer shell and exploded without slowing it down.

"There's another starship coming in." Zofchak reported. "It's the Alexandria."

"Looks like your brother has come to join the party." Hinton grinned.

A smile grew on her face.

"It looks like they are towing something." Her smile disappeared and her face twisted into a look of confusion. "It's a Borg cube."

Hinton shot the young Lieutenant a very surprised look.

"Are they mad?"

The Sovereign class Alexandria swooped into the battle field out of warp towing the Borg derelict.

"Once we're in range disengage the tractor beam and launch the cube into that things mouth." Allensworth said.

The planet killer turned its attention to the incoming starship and fired its antiproton beam.

"It's firing, sir." Fulks said.

"Evasive maneuvers."

The ship moved out of the way of the beam but the beam slammed into the Borg ship, destroying it.

Allensworth slammed his fist into the arm of his chair. "Damn it. Now what do we do?"

"Sir, we are being hailed from the Solent." Merriell said.

"On screen."

The bulkhead shimmered away and was replaced with the image of the captain of the Nova class starship.

"Captain Allensworth, welcome to Ground Zero. If I may ask, what were your plans with that Borg cube?"

"We were going to use it to send down that thing's throat but that thing obviously destroyed the cube before we could use it."

"It seemed to stop paying attention to us when your ship came out of warp and turned its attention to you. Do know of any reason why?" Hinton asked.

"No I don't. It did that to us before…" Allensworth stopped in midsentence as if he had an epiphany.

"I have a theory, Captain but I need to know for sure. We'll keep you informed. Allensworth out."

The screen returned to its bulkhead form before Captain Hinton had the chance to reply. Allensworth pressed a button on the arm of his command chair.

"Zofchak report to the bridge."

Moments later, the chief engineer walked onto the bridge. Allensworth stood up from his seat and faced Dustin.

"Dustin, is it possible to forge a Borg warp signature?" The captain asked.

"I believe so but why…" It dawned on him too. "I'll get to work on it right away, sir."

Dustin sat down at a station on the bridge.

"Merriell help him out. I want you to create multiple Borg signatures outside of the Tucker system. Once it picks them up it should stop its attack and head for the signatures."

Alex Merriell got up from his station to be replaced by Kell Perim and went over to help Zofchak.

Nycz was a bit confused. "Why do you want to create a Borg warp signature?" She asked.

"If you noticed during our previous encounters, Counselor, then you'll notice that the planet killer stopped its attack on us to destroy the Borg ships. Captain Hinton even said that it turned its attention towards us when we came out of warp and it destroyed the cube. I think this thing is smart enough to tell apart its enemies. It must really have a grudge against the Borg."

"What if this thing was a weapon designed to destroy the Borg?" Sparhawk asked.

"It's possible." Allensworth said.

"But what about when Kirk encountered the one in his time?" Nycz asked.

"That could've had something to do when the Borg went back into time to prevent First Contact. They did succeed until the Enterprise went completely through the temporal vortex. It could've picked up on their signal and headed for Earth and just never stopped. The time between First Contact and the time the doomsday machine was encountered seems about the right amount of elapsed time from the Delta Quadrant to the Alpha Quadrant."

"We've finished forging the Borg signatures. Now we're transmitting them to make it look like they are outside the Tucker System."

"Good work you two."

The doomsday machine stopped attacking the Starfleet ships and turned away towards where the fake Borg signatures were positioned.

"It's moving off."

"Excellent. Follow it. Once it's out of the system we'll attack without having to worry about the planets' inhabitants." Allensworth said.


	7. Interrupted Collision Course

The doomsday machine arrived to the location of the Borg signatures. The Starfleet vessels followed and surrounded the aft section of the planet killer. Allensworth rose from his chair and walked towards the view screen.

"Sparhawk, open a channel to the other ships."

Sparhawk pressed a few buttons on his console. "Channel open, sir."

"This is Captain Allensworth of the Alexandria, target all of your weapons on the following coordinates." He pressed a few buttons on the ops console. "Fire at my command."

Seconds later, a multitude of beeping came from Sparhawk's console.

"The fleet is standing by, sir."

Allensworth looked at the view screen and saw the multiple ships move into position. "Fi…"

He was interrupted by a beeping coming from the ops station.

"Sensors are picking up a ship coming out of warp, right on top of us. It's the Brighton."

Allensworth held his breath. The Brighton had reported multiple Borg ships in the Compdi system and it wasn't heard from again. It was possible that it was able to get away but damaged enough not to be able to contact anyone. However, it was very improbable when it came to the Borg.

The Defiant class ship appeared out of warp and it no longer looked like the standard Defiant class ship, it had bulky unorganized additions added to it's port and starboard sides. It flew in firing at the planet killer. Allensworth was unsure what to think. He knew that the Brighton was a lost cause and it had been assimilated. However, his theory was proven correct. The Borg and the Doomsday Machine were enemies and it would appear that both sides would ignore a third party until the other was destroyed.

The planet killer fired its antiproton beam and nailed the starboard side of the Brighton destroying the new additions to the ship. The ship flew out of control and drifted away.

Allensworth just got an idea. "Merriell, what's the status of the Brighton?"

"It's adrift." Merriell reported.

"Lock a tractor beam onto it and we'll throw it into the things mouth."

"Open a channel to the fleet."

"Open, sir." Sparhawk said.

"All ships, fire."

All of the ships fired onto the set coordinates of the planet killer. With the Borg infested Brighton out of commission, it turned its attention to the Federation fleet. Meanwhile, the Alexandria locked onto the Brighton with its tractor beam. Allensworth turned around to his chief engineer.

"Zofchak, I have a job for you. I want you and a two security officers to beam over to the Brighton and rig it to blow, then we'll throw it inside that thing."

"May I suggest beaming a few quantum torpedoes over and I can set them on a timer to add to the explosion?"

Allensworth nodded. "Do it."

Zofchak pointed to Fulks and then headed for the turbolift.

Shortly later, Zofchak, Fulks, and Justin Oliverio, a security team member, materialized in the engineering room of the Defiant class ship along with four quantum torpedoes. Engineering was very similar to the way it looked on the Enterprise-E when the Borg had assimilated it. It was creepy enough to have all three of them on edge. The lack of lighting made it a bit hard to tell where anything was. Dustin was half expecting half a dozen Borg to come out of the walls in their zombie like manor.

"This shouldn't take long but to be on the safe side keep an eye out for Borg drones."

Fulks and Oliverio nodded and then turned away to watch the engineer's blind side.

Zofchak went to work right away and began the process to make this ship destroy itself along with the planet killer. However, there were other plans for the ship as far as the other inhabitants were concerned.

Out of the shadows came two Borg drones. Dustin looked up from his work and saw the intruders. The intruders didn't last any more than a few seconds due to Fulks and Oliverio's phaser blasts. The chief engineer went back to work. More phaser blasts erupted while he worked.

"Damn it." Fulks said.

"What is it?" Zofchak asked.

"They've adapted."

Fulks and Oliverio set their phasers to another setting and fired. It was no use. The Borg had adapted to that setting as well. They got closer without being thwarted. Fulks looked back to Zofchak who was still working on the panel. He reached back and grabbed Zofchak by the shoulder, surprising the hell out of the Lieutenant Commander.

"Fulks to Alexandria, emergency beam out."

The three dematerialized from the Brighton and rematerialized on the Alexandria.

"That's twice, I've come that close to being assimilated."

"Zofchak to Bridge, disengage tractor beam, Borg drones still inhabit the ship."

"Understood. We're you able to rig the ship?" Allensworth asked.

Zofchak hesitated for a second. "Negative, sir."

"Understood. Allensworth out."

Captain Allensworth stood at the center of the bridge, trying to think of a new plan. Fulks and Zofchak entered the bridge and went to their respective stations. A set of beeps filled the bridge notifying them of something. Merriell pressed a few buttons on his console.

"Sir, the Brighton has regained control and is coming about to fight the planet killer."

Allensworth looked at the Defiant class ship as it moved around in space and faced the Doomsday machine.

"That ship is not going to last against that thing." Sparhawk said.

The first officer was right. The planet killer fired its antiproton beam and took out the Brighton with a single shot. The Brighton erupted in fiery ball and then into nothingness.

"Prepare to bring us about." Allensworth said.

"Now what do we do?" Sparhawk asked.

"Moran, set a collision course."

Moran turned around and gave the captain a questioning look.

"You heard me, a collision course." Allensworth snapped.

The captain looked at the view screen and took a deep breath. "Enga…"

"Captain, we're being hailed."

"By who?"

"Unknown,sir."

"On screen."

The battlefield was replaced by the image of an alien that had a deep blue skin and yellow eyes with a green slit in the middle. The eyes would make one think that this species was reptilian.

"I am Nurain from the planet Focaria. I ask for you to cease fire upon my vessel. I meant no real harm towards you and your ships but I was merely defending myself when your species attacked me. I came here to defeat the Borg and no one else."

"I am Captain Jermaine Allensworth of the Federation Starship Alexandria. If what you say is true then why did you turn your attacks toward us and our fleet when we did nothing to provoke you?"

"A ship of your species was assimilated by the Borg and I couldn't tell which it was. My instruments kept telling me that a Borg ship was nearby but it didn't tell me which. That is why I fired upon you and the other ships. I apologize for the lives lost in this conflict. We only wish to destroy the Borg."

"If that is true then why did one of your vessels attack two starships about eighty years ago?"

"Our technology is somewhat unusual, Captain. We were on the trail of a Borg ship that was on its way to this solar system at the time. We found it and destroyed it but we were also low on power and we have to consume planets for fuel."

"I see." Allensworth said as he raised his left hand to touch his chin that was supported by this right arm as it crossed his chest.

Allensworth didn't want to continue this confrontation but he would like some answers to some mysteries that have been hanging around the Federation for quite some time now.

"Nurain, perhaps you would like to beam over and be our guest. We can use this opportunity to learn from another. One of our mottos in Starfleet is to seek out new lifeforms. We'd be honored to have the chance to meet the creators of this mystery machine."

"Thank you, Captain. This is the start of a new day for my people as well as yours."

"I'm inclined to agree." Allensworth said with a smile.

The End.


End file.
